So, few hours ago, I watched Stargate SG-1’s episode number 200, aptly named “200.” It was a rather odd episode, which by itself wouldn’t have been that interesting if it wasn’t for all the references to a very large number of sci-fi shows. The two truly amazing references were to:

Farscape — Since I haven’t watched it, I can’t say how much it is like Farscape, but from what I know they went crazy. (After all, they have Claudia Black.)

Star Trek: The Original Series — Since I have seen all of it, I noticed that the actors (as well as the prop & set people) had a lot of fun trying to make it look and feel close as close to Star Trek as possible.

Overall, very funny episode - even though there was very little plot :)

So, here I was - resting after new years (PF 2006) when I decided to watch some Star Trek. Since I have a considerable backlog of episodes to watch I resumed where I left of last week… Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 2 Episode 14. In this episode, Kirk, et. al. goes down to a planet that seems to have had a history similar to that of Earth. The major difference was, the Roman Empire did not fall. So, the away team finds themselves on a planet with Roman values but mid 20th century technology. Well, at approximately 17 minutes into the episode, there are a bunch of shots of Roman buildings. At 17:27 in, there is this one:

When I saw that, I went: “Whoa! Is that….?” I couldn’t help but resist pausing and googling to make sure my suspicion was correct. And it turns out it was.

What exactly did I think when I saw the frame above? “Whoa! Is that Building 10 at MIT?” Yep. I knew the name or rather number of the building. (I blame the fact that I applied there as a freshman.) Here’s a photo I found on google that is from not too long ago:

And here is a link to the original of the above image. In the larger version you can clearly see the “MASSACHVSETTS INSTITVT OF TECHNOLOGY” and the year “MCMXVI.”

I think the reasons the producers chose the MIT shot were:

Not everyone knows what it looks like, compared to say many of the Roman-like architecture buildings in Washington, DC.

(Possibly) Star Trek does tend to be watched by more technologically oriented people. And it adds the episode a nice touch to show one of the major technology universities